Even before voters get inside a Hillary Clinton campaign event, they’re confronted with Katy Perry.

Clinton’s team blasts the candidate’s official playlist of mostly female-led pop ballad bangers – such as Perry’s Roar and Stronger by Kelly Clarkson – so loudly it can easily be heard by those waiting outside venues.

“It’s hard to talk or even hear yourself think,” said the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino, who has attended over 40 Clinton events this election.

Pop for politics is nothing new – Bill Clinton used Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop, and Barack Obama used will.i.am’s Yes We Can, for instance – and candidates consider music a key element for establishing their personality and inspiring followers.

“Music, as I see it, is the candidate’s attempt to constitute their identity in sound,” explained Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, an assistant professor in music at Georgia College. “To sonically construct themselves in a way that appeals to the voters but also offers insight to who they are and what they stand for.”

Gorzelany-Mostak is creator and co-editor of Trax on the Trail, a research project examining the music in the 2016 election, from Bernie Sanders’ folksy 1960s tunes of revolution to Marco Rubio’s love of electronic dance music, aka EDM.

Donald Trump

The Republican frontrunner’s campaign songs burst out of speakers with virtually no links between them: from the Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar to the Phantom of the Opera to the Hulk Hogan theme song, Real American.

Trump himself struts on to the stage to Nessun Dorma, a booming and aggressive Puccini aria, sung in Italian by Luciano Pavarotti. “It’s unrepentantly fascist,” said Dan Roberts, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, likening it to attending at Benito Mussolini rally.

Trump’s eclectic mix, supposedly all chosen by him according to his love for the songs, are not typical presidential campaign picks. But they do reflect the unpredictably of the candidate. “Trump’s entire reputation is sort of built upon this idea of a candidate taking up unpopular positions,” said Gorzelany-Mostak.

Marco Rubio

Rubio’s beats reflect a young Latino man who grew up in Miami more than they do a conservative Republican, with Flo Rida, the Black Eyed Peas and Calvin Harris all on regular rotation. Lately, Rubio bounces on to the stage to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck and leaves to Greater, by Christian pop group Mercy Me.

Rubio has spoken to CNN about his love for EDM, denying he’d ever been to a rave but saying he grew up listening to 90s west coast hip-hop, and now enjoys dance music.

But he was careful to note that his favorites were country songs laid over electronic music – meaning the lyrics were clean. The country music is also “a nod to the people he’s campaigning in front of”, said the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui, who has trailed the senator’s campaign.

Ted Cruz

The hardline evangelical candidate from Texas plays country and Christian pop, including Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly by Aaron Tippin and tunes from the Christian band Newsboys. But his music doesn’t garner much attention, since his few tracks often repeat, and they clearly meld with his image as a conservative and deeply religious southerner.

Cathy Guthrie, granddaughter of Woody Guthrie, far left, Amy Nelson, daughter of Willie Nelson, with the musical group Folk Uke, sing as Guy Forsyth plays guitar for Senator Bernie Sanders, center, and his wife Jane Sanders, on a rendition of This Land Is Your Land in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders’ music, like his politics, revolves around revolution: Power to the People by John Lennon, Talkin’ Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman, The Revolution Starts Now by Steve Earle.

But ever since David Bowie’s death in January, Sanders has left the stage to the strains of Bowie’s Starman: “There’s a starman waiting in the sky / He’d like to come and meet us / But he thinks he’d blow our minds”.

It’s a strategic pick. “Bowie: he’s a rebel, a revolutionary, a radical, all wrapped in one charismatic man,” Gorzelany-Mostak said. “Can Sanders channel some of that star magic?”

Hillary Clinton joins singer Wilson on stage during a get-out-the-vote concert in support of her at the Music Farm in Charleston, South Carolina.
Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Hillary Clinton

Clinton’s crowd is mainly middle-aged women, and not exactly the typical audience for a pop-star playlist of top 20 hits circa 2016, a list exemplified by Clinton’s carefully curated Spotify playlist, which clearly targets younger people.

Clinton’s attempt to win supporters through her music is a guaranteed way to fail, says Gorzelany-Mostak.

“Music doesn’t really work that way in a campaign. Nobody hears their cool music and changes their mind about who they are voting for,” she said. Campaign music should rally people that already support you, she added.

“Reporters are always grumbling about how much they hate the songs,” grumbled Gambino.

The effect on the press and the crowd lasts. Rubio recently started blasting Kid Rock’s Born Free at rallies, the theme song to Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 campaign.